VICE PRESIDENTIAL candidate Alan Peter Cayetano last Feb. 5 said a Duterte administration won’t violate human rights under a campaign pledge to wipe out criminality.
“If you see how Mayor Duterte talks, yes, he talks about [it being] bloody, about killing. But he’s never said he’d kill anyone in cold blood,” Cayetano said in a forum at the Seminary Gym, in answer to a question about his running mate, presidential bet Rodrigo Duterte, being involved in summary killings of criminals and drug peddlers in Davao City.
Duterte, who has been mayor of Davao City for seven terms, was unable to attend the UST forum due to a prior commitment in Pampanga, where he was seen kissing some women attending his event.
Cayetano, the Senate majority leader, said law enforcers would only kill criminals in life-threatening situations. “Policemen have a duty to kill when another life can be taken,” he said.
The Duterte-Cayetano tandem’s priorities in their first 100 days in office are cutting the crime rate and shifting to a federal form of government, Cayetano said in response to a question from the Varsitarian.
‘Decentralization’
The two candidates have criticized the Aquino administration for prioritizing development in Metro Manila, while neglecting the regions.
Cayetano said they would move Cabinet departments out of the capital, increase the budget given to the provinces, and make people “trust the government as their partners.”
Cayetano is a two-term senator, who was first elected in 2007 and re-elected in 2013. In 1998, he served as congressman and acting vice mayor of Taguig City. His wife Lani Cayetano is the incumbent mayor of Taguig. His sister Pia is on her last term as senator.
The first in a series of election fora, titled “The Filipino Youth Vision: The Presidential and Vice Presidential Forum Series for the New Philippines 2021,” was organized by Aktiboto, a student-initiated voter education campaign for the Filipino youth. Paul Xavier Jaehwa C. Bernardo and Monica M. Hernandez
